Student Questions & Answers on Vietnam

Before I get into the
questions on the Vietnam War I would like to express some opinions, which I
believe to be true. They come from a book “Why Vietnam Still Matters, The war
and the wall” compiled by Jan Scruggs

Myth:The Vietnam War was a civil war.

Fact:It was a war of conquest that was planned,
directed, financed, and trained by the leadership in Hanoi, in violation of the
1954 Geneva Treaty. It was, fortunately, the LAST great communist war of
conquest.

Myth:The 1968 Tet offensive was a surprise to U.S.
forces.

Fact:The books author served
in intelligence during Vietnam. We knew exactly which units would be involved
and roughly where they’d be coming from. By the time the first rockets hit Long
Binh around 2 or 3 in the morning, the main question most of us had was, “Where
are they? Did they forget it’s the Tet holiday?”

Myth:The Tet Offensive was a
great communist victory.

Fact:Tet was one of the most
lop-sided defeats ever inflicted on a foe by U.S. forces. Assaults were
launched on scores of provincial capitals, with almost all being repelled. The
attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon was a suicide mission, which was bound to
fail. Only in the imperial city of Hue was there a communist occupation of any length.
Tet virtually destroyed the Viet Cong. From that point on, almost all of the
large-unit fighting was conducted by North Vietnamese regular army units.

Myth:The Vietnam War was
unwinnable.

Fact:The U.S. could have won
the war any time it wanted to, and within a matter of weeks. You may debate all
you want about whether or not we should have applied the necessary force, but
there is absolutely no question of our capabilities. We simply lacked the will
to bring those resources to bear.

(John C. Dibble served
in Vietnam as officer-in-charge of U.S. Navy swift Boat and as commanding
officer and senior advisor at operating Base Kien An in the U Minh Forrest)

The following lines
could well be spoken by any one of the loved ones whose name is forever
engraved on the Vietnam Memorial, and always in our hearts:

When
you’re lonely and sick at heart,

Go
to the friends we know,

And
bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,

MISS
ME….But let me go.

Author unknown

(Violet C. Long is the
Dept. and Chapter Officer, and Past National President of the American Gold
Star Mothers, Inc.)

I have been asked some
questions on the Vietnam War, in the past, which may be used for future student
projects or papers.

If you have more or
other specific questions please email me and I will try and respond quickly.

Please Note: I do not answer
obscure/offensive questions such as “How did you feel about being a baby
killer?”

Please do not ask such questions!

1)Have
you or any of your close friends suffered from PTSD?

Yes, I am currently
rated at 30% PTSD and have a new evaluation pending which, I believe, will
increase the rating to 60-70%. I also have many friends and relatives with PTSD
due to Vietnam.

The VA can take years
to evaluate veteran’s claims and in may cases the veterans die before the claim
is approved.

2)One
Vietnam combat veteran said, "The U.S. Army [in Vietnam] was like a mother
who sold out her kids to be raped by [their] father to protect her own
interests."Do you agree with
that?

Some may
have seen it this way. In some cases it may have been true. I believe the army,
in general, was trying to do it's job. We went to war at an unfortunate time.
The US government was not willing to engage in war but called it a POLICE
ACTION, for many civilians back home they did not even know the police action
was going on and didn't even care. The public and our own government did not
back us up like our brothers from WWII. Unfortunately we were in a similar
category as the KOREAN conflict.

3)Many
soldiers had problems with the newly issued M-16, did you experience any?

NO, However in the
early years of the war (1964-66) the M-16 was new and the soldiers were not use
to it. It had some flaws, like many new weapons, (1965-66).

The flaws were worked
out and it became a valuable weapon and is still being used today. The weapon
could be temperamental and just wanted to be cleaned to operate properly. I was
trained on the weapon in late 1968, fired Expert with it, and became a weapons
armorer/repairman. I encountered few problems with the weapon, however by 1969
it had went through a few upgrades and most of the problems were fixed. The
major problem was that it had to be kept somewhat clean to function properly
and this was a hard task for the infantryman.

4)Do
you feel that this is at all true or over exaggerated?: "[By 1969] it was
an Army in which men escaped into marijuana and heroin and other men died
because their comrades were "stoned" on these drugs...It was an Army
whose units in the field were on the edge of mutiny, whose soldiers rebelled
against the senselessness of their sacrifice by assassinating officers and
noncoms in "accidental" shootings and "fraggings" with
grenades."

Granted there were
incidents that caused many men to die and for no reason however the majority of
units had minimal drug problems, not any more than the problems encountered
back home. You have to remember the attitude and moral of the United States at
the time of the conflict. It was one of a promiscuous society and many drugs
were being experimented with by the young people. Many of these young people
were drafted and brought this attitude into the military.

I was in an artillery
battery and we had some dope smoking problems but we fired our missions without
error and were awarded a presidential unit citation for our battle scars in
combat.

The soldiers I knew
were courageous and brave during combat and not the typical news media druggie
as depicted by the media.

5)Were
booby traps an everyday common thing?Were many men victims of them?

No, being in the artillery I
only had one patrol that I participated in and never encountered any booby
traps.

6)Do
you feel that war was profoundly political because it is about power?Have you always felt that way?

The
war was a political thing and lost a lot of brave young men and women for the
big political jerks running the country.

I
wish they were there with us and things might have changed.

The
politicians needed to make up their minds on whether they wanted to commit to a
war or get out.

7)Did
you feel that you needed your friends-in-arms in order to survive?

Our
brothers in combat have then and today always been the most physiological bond
that I have ever encountered.

The
military always trained us to work as a team and this is still happening among
many of us in our fight for our benefits and problems with PTSD.

8)Can
you remember the names or faces of anyone with whom you served after a close
friend or a particular person was killed?

Yes,
I can, some are listed on my web site with photos. I was lucky, being in an
artillery battery that had No on killed during my 14 months in country. Once I
returned to the states and started training troops I did have friends which
were sent to Vietnam and became POW/MIAs which took a toll on me. Today I have
friend that have died at an early age because of the problems caused by the
spraying of the AGENT ORANGE defoliants used to kill the jungle. It is killing
us off now!

9)Were
you taught that to care for the well-being of an individual person is to be
vulnerable to pain and grief?

No,
that is something that just comes to you. In some cases you must harden
yourself to combat. This was done a lot with the guys in the infantry or in the
field. They did not want to make friends because it would only break your heart
when their friend died.

Pain,
grief, happiness and joy are something we all will go through in our lifetime,
some will just get a bunch more than others, unfortunately. Establishing
friendships is good for the soul no mater whether that friendship ends in pain
or death. I believe the more friendships or hearts you touch in life is and can
only be a positive force in your life.

10)Do
you feel that you died in Vietnam?

No,
I did not die in Vietnam but left a few pieces of my heart there, both for my
friends and for some of the local people.

11)Did
you ever expect to return home alive?Did you want to?

I
did not expect to live through the war, then called a Police Action. I always
want to come home to the ones I love.

12)Were
there many racially motivated killings and riots within the troops?

Some
hostilities in other units but none with our artillery battery.

13)Did
you go over to Vietnam with the unit you had trained with? Did you return to
"the world" with it?

No,
I was sent as an individual soldier and assigned to a unit once in Vietnam. I
came home as and individual soldier also.

14)Did
you feel that to weep was to lose one's dignity among fellow American soldiers

No,
you must be able to show your emotions among friends who knew what you were
going through.

A
normal reaction and must be tolerated among soldiers. I didn’t think much about
mourning, I guess I was too young and there were no deaths in my artillery
battery.

16)Have
you ever contemplated suicide?Have any
of your close friends?

.
I
thought about it but that was as far as it goes. Many of my friends talk openly
and we get through our problems via the net or a VA Psychologist.

17)Did
you often find yourself thinking that "it should have been me" when
men around you died?

Yes
the “Why did I come home” syndrome is experienced quite often, especially as I
get older.

18)When
a veteran says he "lost it," what exactly did he lose?Do they feel its their humanity?

Usually was an expression of going temporarily insane. Went
crazy or over the edge, lost his sanity for a period of time.

19)When
you look back at your life, when you were in Vietnam, are you disappointed in
what you were and what you did?

NO,
Not at all, we went to war just like the troops of W.W.II but never had the
backing of our government or people.

This
was not our fault. We were there to do our duty for our country! Not like
others who ran and evaded the draft.

20)Was
napalm often used?What qualifications
had to be met in order to use it? Would you say that it was best used as
revenge?

We
used WP or White Phosphorus rounds when required. You used what you had to stay
alive during an attack and what was requested when firing support.

21)Did
you look upon the enemy as less then human?

No,
we looked at the enemy as a cunning, relentless pursuer out to kill us and we
would do the same to him if and when the time arose.

22)Was
there a reason that the Vietnamese enemy was called Charlie?

It
was because the call sign for the VC was Victor Charlie hence the short
abbreviation to Charlie.

AKA
(also Known as); dink and gook.

23)You
know, they said we were fighting Communism, that they were peasants [who used]
pitchforks and homemade weapons, Were you told this before you went to Vietnam?

No
not really, we knew of the NVA being uniformed troops with AK-47s and battle
hardened along with the VC gorillas. All of these troops were armed with some
form of communist weapon or weapons stolen from US troops they had killed.

24)Did
you believe in God before you went to war? How about during the war?After the war?

I
have always believed in GOD and carried my Bible in my helmet. I still believe
in GOD!

25)Did
many soldiers mutilate the bodies of the enemy?

I
have heard of this and I believe it was true but not in the Artillery.

26)Was
friendly fire a common thing?

We
only fired out of our grid once in the 14 months I was there, and it killed a
NVA Sniper so we were lucky. No other incidents that I am aware of. I believe
it happened more than once and probably killed many of our troops. It seems it
is something that happens in war, unfortunately.

27)Were
you more afraid of being KIA, POW, or an MIA?

Didn't
think of it too much, we were young and dumb. The lesser out of the three would
have been POW because they would know you were alive where KIA is Dead and MIA
was missing in action but usually dead also.

28)Do
you regard the men who died as the lucky ones?

NOT
AT ALL! They were many of the heroes though.

29)Did
you feel as though you were nothing more then a political prisoner?